Has Obama Been Paying Attention to Reforms in Cuba?

Raul Castro, the leader of communist Cuba, just announced that Cuba is laying off 500,000 government employees. Bravo! It’s about time.

Cuba is finally reforming their economy and headed in the direction of capitalism. Like China and the Soviet Union before it, Cuba has finally figured out that everyone cannot work for government — at least not if you want your people to prosper, or your economy to avoid insolvency and bankruptcy.

I only wish we could say the same for America. Incredibly, President Barack Obama hasn't learned anything from Cuba's mistakes.

Under Comrade Obama, America is expanding the number of government employees and the size of the welfare state. Obama must not have noticed that after years of government control of the economy Cuba is an economic basket case, with its citizens living in abject poverty and misery.

If he has noticed then why is Obama aiming America towards this disastrous Cuban model? Is it purposeful? Or pure ignorance?

While Castro admits that having the government do more to control the economy and create jobs is a horrendous failure, our very own Comrade Obama has added over $4 trillion in debt to grow government, reward his Democratic cronies (with stimulus and bailouts), and control the economy to “create and save jobs.”

While Castro explains his cuts of government employees by saying “We can’t keep supporting inflated payrolls,” and is now encouraging entrepreneurship, small business creation, and capitalist reforms, Comrade Obama steals from future generations to save government jobs, hire more government employees, and preserve the obscene raises, pensions and benefits of government employees (that are 70 percent higher than comparable jobs in the private sector). Only days ago Obama spent $26 billion more to save teacher union jobs for the very people that are presiding over the disastrous failure of government-run education. Where does Obama get the money to pay for all these government employees? By redistributing income from private sector taxpayers who are losing their jobs and small businesses due to Obama’s oppressive regulatory and tax burdens.

Communist Castro says, “Stop expecting too much from government.” He hints that there will be even more economic reform, perhaps ending or cutting back on government subsidies for housing, transportation and food. Meanwhile Obama asks government to provide ever more from lifelong free healthcare, to asking government to subsidize delinquent homeowners.

While Castro says, “We must increase the number of jobs where Cubans can go into business for themselves,” Obama is punishing entrepreneurs and small business creators with gigantic income tax increases, healthcare taxes, capital gains taxes, dividend and savings taxes, and any other taxes he can dream up (such as a new VAT tax and possible new raises in FICA taxes for the self employed). It’s all enough to make Fidel Castro get up off his deathbed to shout “Viva La Revolucion!”

While Cuba moves away from communism with capitalist-style reforms, Obama leads America away from capitalism and towards Fidel Castro’s utopia of starvation, deprivation, levels of poverty never imagined in America (not yet anyway), and of donkeys pulling broken-down carts on the streets of Havana.

I can only conclude that Obama is NOT learning from Castro's mistakes.

Raul Castro, the leader of communist Cuba, just announced that Cuba is laying off 500,000 government employees. Bravo! It s about time.
Cuba is finally reforming their economy and headed in the direction of capitalism. Like China and the Soviet Union before it, Cuba has...